And soon we were boarding another British Airways aircraft. This time the flight was going to be a nice and short 40 minutes! In my humble opinion Terminal 4 at Heathrow is too congested. Both for take off and landing. We taxied for a while till we got out close to the airstrip and waited our turn to take off. There were flights taking off almost every 45 odd seconds at 9 on a Sunday morning! Finally, we were air-borne having a lovely bacon sandwich with café au lait flying over the Queen’s Windor Castle and then over the English Channel and soon we’re in the French air-space. The aircraft was starting to descend and I was craning my neck from my window seat to spot the Eiffel Tower even though we were miles away. I was passionately curious.
Travel ✈Page 2 of 4
We arrived this morning at 6:30 am at Heathrow. Its winter and 6°C :). The flight from Sydney to Bangkok and then onward to UK was really nice. We watched The Darjeeling Limited, a documentary on Paris which was very informative and perfect for getting us in the mood and then a few other odds and ends like Run Fat boy Run)… time went by too quick. I just did my first ever 21 hours flying with a short break of course. Nine to Bangkok and then another twelve to the UK.
I cannot even begin to tell you how excited we are for our upcoming travel. If you aren’t sure what I am talking about here is a little recap to Bonjour Paris! 
We are anxiously counting down the days till we take off. Its not going to be a short flight, but having travelled Sydney to San Francisco to Washington DC to Raleigh all in one day with no stopovers… I’m imagining this Sydney to Paris, Charles de Gaulle International Airport via Bangkok and London isn’t going to be too far from my American Adventure.
Silhouettes on Paris
I’ll be wide-eyed most of the time in fantasies of what France will hold. Lovely winter, grand avenues, atmospheric little backstreets, exquisitely designed gardens, cosmopolitan, botique, the chic and their hauteur, the historic pillars of the ancient times, the church of Notre-Dame the royal palace of the Louvre, the Eiffel Tower, legions of art galleries and museums, the Pompidou Centre the royal palace of Versailles, Champs- Elysees, the cafes around Marais, St Germain, the walks around Quartier Latin, Montmartre… there is so much to see and so much ambiance to soak up.
Time is running out and there is still a fair bit to be done… It would be so nice to watch Audrey Tautou’s Amélie all over again to get us in the mood if only time wasn’t a constraint. But despite the long flight there is a lot of joy to be had in anticipation of this great sojourn in gay Pari. Truly, Bonjour Paris! Here we come.
carrousel de paris
Time flies by way too quick when you’re having fun. And that would precisely explain what I’ve been up to lately. Loads of fun. I also had a great opportunity to visit mum and dad during the Diwali — the festival of light and spend some quality time in India with them. Though it was a relatively short visit and time flew by so quick, the few days in India sure were a trip down my memory lane of familiar smells, tastes, sounds and everything in-between.
We’ve come back from a lovely visit to the far north tropical Queensland. There is so much to write and so many photos to share. I don’t want to spoil it all by giving you bits and pieces, so wait until my next post on Cairns and hopefully you will see a bit of what I saw captured with my lens… until then, here is a little teaser.
Not long to go now before we head off to Cairns. We are all very excited about our upcoming trip. We did have the luxury of visiting Sunshine Coast, Queensland earlier this year in February even though it was a short holiday. Holidays are never long enough are they? It was a lovely few days of soaking up all the decadence we could at the lovely sun drenched beaches of Noosa and picturesque hinterlands of Maleny and Glass House Mountains. Queensland is beautiful. Fascinating! Stunning! No wonder they say “its beautiful one day and perfect the next“.
New South Wales is lovely but Queensland is just stunning. It really is… and now you know why I just cant wait to get on that plane and be in that beautiful paradise state of Queensland yet again. And in the company of loved ones its heaven on earth.
The lovely-lovely D has won us a fully paid ticket to Paris for two for a week. This also includes a stay at the Accor group of hotels in Paris for a week. GRATIS!!! Oh My God! We’re so ecstatic. I can’t even start to tell you… there’ll be more updates soon. The only pressing need is that we need to avail it by the end of this calendar year and we’re both extremely busy but hey you can never be too busy to take a free luxury ride to La Pari!
Bonjour Paris! Here we come.
We’re back from a very short but rather exciting few days in Western Australia. Western Australia is the biggest state in Australia.
It was really nice to catch up with Holly, Dean, Rose, Adrian and family. My flight on Thursday night got slightly delayed due to strong head wind which makes travelling westward from Sydney almost always longer than usual. Since the flight was at night there wasn’t much to see but again flying at 11,000 kilometers above the surface of earth one wouldnt see much anyway. The little tv screen at the back of the seats told me in time I was flying over Esperence — a city that looked well lit a city which also known for its magical coastline. Soon it started to descend and we’re approaching Perth. A small airport. The arrival area looked like a little country town airport. A short walk on the tarmac, onto the carousel and then off to Grand Medina which would be home for three nights.
I just got mail and am all too excited to share it with you…
…we have seen some amazing monuments from mosques and Hindu and Jain temples to the unforgettable Taj Mahal as well as the narrow alleys of old Delhi including a spice market. Tomorrow we head to a national park to try to spot some tigers — apparently quite rare to see…
Ming-Mang’s Tomb, Hue Vietnam
Before I embark on writing another personal anecdotal sojourn I had better warned my readers that this might well be yet another unfinished write up… given the fact there are only twenty four measly hours of which I usually sleep seven, work eight, travel two, eat, rest and mac-about… there is not enough time to do much. I’m lagging behind in keeping up my site looking pretty and posting photos I’ve recently shot in Viêtnam and Brunei.
And another lovely holiday has gone by in a moments blink. Vietnam was a blast, and so was Brunei. Really-really nice. Honyea, Ros, David and I flew Royal Brunei Airlines in and out of Sydney. Quite an experience! But I’ll get to that later.
Continue reading ‘Saigon, here we come’
We’re back from a fantastic trip to Viêtnam, the old the new, from Ho-Chi-Minh City, Siagon right up to Hanoi and then of course to the richest country in the world… Brunei gee whiz what a good time was had by us all. I shot up 17 Gig’s and the Epson P2000 was a big help.
Across the rice paddy on our way back from Halong Bay to Hanoi (north Viêtnam).
Looking over chinabay at De-Nang on the way to Hue through the meandering mountain roads.
I’ll have some exciting stories for you soon. My only regret is that I truly forgot to buy one of those beautiful conical hats in Viêtnam. Rumour has it that only women wear ‘conical hats’ in Viêtnam but am pretty sanguine I saw loads of men wearing ‘em too.
Ho Chi Minh City, Cu Chi tunnels, the Cham Museum, Marble Mountain and China Beach en route the delightful fishing town of Hoi An, exploring its narrow streets filled with historic buildings, tailors and inviting restaurants, historic Hue for its splendid tombs, ornate pagodas and the remains of a once magnificent Imperial Citadel, overnight cruise on the scenic Halong Bay also known as the Jewel of the Bay, dotted with thousands of limestone islands and hidden grottos, Hanoi’s Old Quarter, the Temple of Literature, the History Museum and Ngoc Son temple oh I can barely contain my excitement, a few weeks from now, we’re headed to Vietnam for two weeks.
Soon the tiny little spot(representing our aircraft) on the map spotted very close to the International date line. I sat back up in my seat, craned my neck a bit just in case my eyes would meet a big thick metal line engraved with the words ‘International Date Line‘. Silly, I know! But the excitement of the moment had long surpassed the reality of geography. I was thinking of words and phrases like antipode, 180°, GMT, Prime Meridian, Pi’s journey. I was excited. Very Excited. And as of this very moment we were flying over it. First time ever. Mary looked at me and could tell how very excited I was: Well, she said with a smile, I don’t think you’d get a certificate for crossing the date line. We had a laugh but I was still excited. I had momentarily stopped listening to the Jazz, the organs in my body were confussed, some were in the tomorrow and some in the yesterday and the remaining very confussingly in the present! How Bizarre!
Continue reading ‘International Date Line’
It was time to board soon and I walked in as seating area 2 was called. David had booked lovely aisle seats for long flights. The walk through the first class, business and then onto Economy is really a tease! In a while I saw a couple come up and stood infront of me. Mary, had a lovely soft and peaceful smile. Our eyes met… I kind of gestured: Are these your seats? Mary softly replied: I’m afraid so! Soon we were taxing for take-off and we were air-borne. It was noisy! But Mary and I got chatting and much before we knew… we were cruising over Fiji at thirty-four thousand feet, very close to sunset as I noticed through the small window next to Chuck, Mary’s husband. Sunset hues over relatively unpolluted almost pristine air is breath-taking. These are things a photographer craves to capture. Unfortunately, I couldn’t shoot any picture during my flight but I wasn’t very keen either!
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